The Views & Opinions expressed in the following letter
are NOT necessarily those of the webmaster, this open letter was submitted
to him by a US Mini Owner on visiting the site
This reply to you from BMW caused me to think of how
BMW and Germany never
considered the rights of all the Jews and non-Jews that they slaughtered
in the
name of purity and a pure race. This is so much pap, so much boiler
plate from
lawyers (solicitors to you?) that makes one want to puke. Bavaria still
is the
most anti-Semitic region of Germany.
Btw, is the German national anthem still Deutschland
Uber Alles? They have never changed.
They are still and always will be a fierce and warlike group of people.
So once again you see a fierce and warlike group of people
who are more
concerned with their rights than the tradition which they claimed to
have
purchased, lock, stock and barrel. And the trade name! What a joke.
The company
(Rover Cars) as you stated is out of business. There is no more Mini
as we know
it. They have for all intents and purposes stolen the trade name for
themselves.
The Mini has ceased production but somehow the mini name has be scrounged
from the
dead. They are nothing but ghouls, grave robbers if you will.
I think it's a shame that the mom and pop mini business
owners were not able to engage BMW in a class action suit to win their
cause but it was all about money and who has more. In this war the ammunition
is money and how much you can supply the lawyers with to keep them fighting
in court. Unfortunately Goliath has had his day against the little David's
of the Mini Community across Europe and the UK Goliath had the bigger
cannons in this war.
One incident demonstrates a division of the "tribes"
here in the US and that was
the attendance at MME last month. Even though it was my first Mini Meet
I was
surprised at what I considered to be a small turnout even though there
must have
been about 100 minis there. The only reason I felt the turnout was small
is that
I have attended a car show devoted to the TVR over the years and it
was open to
all British cars. And the TVR turnout was incredible. And then there
were one or
two Rolls Royces, a handful of Triumphs, a group of MGs, and a stand
of minis
led by New Jersey Mini Owners . It took much longer to walk around and
see all
the cars at the TVR show than it did to see all the minis at MME.
But I asked around and was told that since BMW was going
to present the new car on July 4
(the 3rd and final day of MME) that a lot of mini owners and clubs had
boycotted
MME and just said FUCK IT! That explains the turnout or lack thereof.
So you can see there is opposition here to the new car
and the attitude of BMW. They could have done it better or in a nicer
way if they wanted to. The small businesses in Europe and the UK could
never take anything away from BMW by retaining their original names.
Have they extended the tradesman madness to Cooper as
well?
I don't know why they just didn't make the car under
the name BMW and be done
with it? It's amazing that nobody in their corporate world would ever
take the
time scrutinize the market to take measure of any offense they might
be
committing. They might have obtained the tradesman legally but it's
obscene in
the long run since they alienated the very people that they wanted to
serve with
the hopes of selling everybody this new Not-A-mInI! The offense committed
is a
lack of common decency towards the mini community and all the small
mom and pop
Mini business owners that have been faithfully supplying Mini parts
and Mini
services for many many years.
I appreciate your anger and not letting go of the issue
against BMW. BMW goes on talking about their rights regarding the BMW
trade name "mini" and the rights of BMW etc., blah blah. This was the
master plan and the final solution dreamed up by the Germans and their
reason for acquiring Rover in 1994 are rather clear now.